Elden Ring: The shadow of Erdtree's first major boss is a real statement of intent: The early game served as a bit of a Margit-style blocker to the progression of many players, but the actual Lion dance inspiration turned out to be deeper than I initially assumed: YouTube's BonfireVN A new video by the Lion

I think I was just assuming that, while apparently taking visual inspiration from the lion dance, the Divine Beast dancing lion would be something of some sort of grafted flesh under its armor and cloak. I had things in mind like the base game Royal Revenant enemies, but BonfireVN also profitably removed them in another video, revealing their full nasty glory.

But when BonfireVN stripped the top layer of the dancing lion, there were apparently 2 squatting little guys hanging down there. So far, he squats down on all fours and shouts at what brings up Rear. I hope he doesn't always stick to being the butt of this primitive hornsent guardian.

It's wild to see a dancing lion go through the attack animation by removing the top layer of armor: it makes as much sense as most players would otherwise expect a magic lion dance from another dimension, and this kind of craft is always something that sets FromSoftware apart. This is the first time I've seen this video.

And the studios are zagged again when we expect them to zig-zag, or maybe this isn't some kind of real two lion dance and grafted guy or maybe I'm just gullible and talking for myself. Catch me scared at the Lunar New Year celebration, thinking that the lion dance is a real monster. Maybe later I'll be fooled by 2 kids stacked on top of each other under a trench coat — it's a really tall, wobbly guy!